Americans United - Ted Cruzhttps://au.org/tags/ted-cruz
enDesperate Plea: Texas Theocrat Says Voting For Trump Is OK Because God Has ‘A Different Standard’https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/desperate-plea-texas-theocrat-says-voting-for-trump-is-ok-because-god-has-a
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>David Barton, the Religious Right’s favorite <a href="http://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/barton-bunk-religious-right-historian-claims-people-who-criticize-him-hate">phony historian</a>, is trying to sell his base on voting for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. But where most of Barton’s allies have resorted to pumping up Trump by dumping on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Barton acknowledges Trump’s flaws – but says they don’t matter because Trump has been chosen by God to lead the United States.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Barton says, if you don’t vote for Trump, God might hold you accountable.</p>
<p>Barton in late June asserted that <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2016/06/30/david-barton-donald-trump-is-gods-guy-in-this-election/">God had a hand</a> in the GOP primaries because there were so many “God guys” in it. In a recent teleconference hosted by former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s My Faith Votes, Barton warned evangelical Christians not to stay home on Election Day just because they don’t like Trump or Clinton.</p>
<p>“We will stand before God one day and answer for everything we’ve said and thought and done,” Barton opined. “[God will say,] ‘I gave you your country, what did you do that with?’ ‘Well, I didn’t do anything because I didn’t like any of the candidates.’ Really? You think God is going to buy that...He’s going to say, ‘I gave you a vote. What did you do with that vote I gave you?’ ‘Well, I couldn’t use it for anybody.’”</p>
<p><img alt="" src="/files/KingDavidsSpoils.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 614px;" /></p>
<p><em>David Barton criticized American voters who would reject King David just because he had a few flaws - like committing murder and adultery.</em></p>
<p>Barton, who raised money for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) until Cruz dropped out of the presidential race in May, apparently believes that being “God’s guy” means you can do all sorts of questionable things and still receive God’s blessing – just as some biblical figures did.</p>
<p>“[M]aybe God’s got a different standard than what we do,” Barton speculated. He went on to say that those who would reject Trump probably would also refuse to vote for famed biblical leaders like King David because he was a murderer who also cheated on his wife, Noah because “he had trouble with drunkenness” or Lot, who slept with his own daughter. (Thanks to Right Wing Watch for <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-barton-christians-who-refuse-vote-donald-trump-will-have-answer-god">the transcript</a>).</p>
<p>The average American voter probably considers it a deal breaker if a candidate has committed murder or incest. Addiction likely isn’t thought of as a favorable trait in elected officials, either. But as far as Barton is concerned, nothing of that nature should matter as long as God has “chosen” a particular politician.</p>
<p>This is how far the Religious Right has fallen in its pathetic attempt to come to grips with the fact that Trump, a thrice-married casino magnate who has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/27/politics/ben-sasse-donald-trump-affairs-salesman-iowa/">openly bragged</a> about all of the women (many married) he has bedded, is their standard-bearer.</p>
<p>Barton’s message is hardly unique. It’s essentially a more extreme version of <a href="http://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/holy-hypocrisy-religious-right-author-says-voting-for-trump-is-not-morally">an argument</a> made recently by a Religious Right leader who wrote <em>Politics According to the Bible</em>, a 619-page tome that claims to offer a biblical take on all modern policy issues.</p>
<p>“I do not think that voting for Donald Trump is a morally evil choice because there is nothing morally wrong with voting for a <em>flawed</em> candidate if you think he will do more good for the nation than his opponent,” Wayne Grudem wrote recently. “In fact, it is the morally right thing to do.”</p>
<p>We haven’t seen the last of these sort of justifications, I am sure, but let’s be sure to call them what they are: hypocrisy. For a group obsessed with a very narrow view of morality, the Religious Right sure abandoned all of that quickly when it became politically convenient. </p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-barton">David Barton</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/king-david">King David</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/noah">Noah</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lot">Lot</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ben-carson">Ben Carson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/my-faith-votes">My Faith Votes</a></span></div></div>Mon, 15 Aug 2016 14:31:25 +0000Simon Brown12269 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/desperate-plea-texas-theocrat-says-voting-for-trump-is-ok-because-god-has-a#commentsBitten By A Tiger: Huckabee Must Pay For Unauthorized Use Of Songhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/bitten-by-a-tiger-huckabee-must-pay-for-unauthorized-use-of-song
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Former Arkansas governor and Religious Right favorite Mike Huckabee has not been having a good year.</p>
<p>Huckabee won the Iowa GOP caucus in 2008 and hoped to repeat that magic in 2016. But he ended up struggling for attention in a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates.</p>
<p>In an effort to gin up his far-right evangelical base, Huckabee traveled to Kentucky in September of 2015 for a campaign rally with Kim Davis, a clerk in Rowan County who became a folk hero to the Religious Right after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.</p>
<p>During the rally, Davis took the stage as the song “Eye of the Tiger,” a number-one hit from 1982 by the band Survivor, blared over loudspeakers. The song, which served as the theme for “Rocky III,” has become an anthem for underdogs everywhere.</p>
<p>The chorus goes: “It’s the eye of the tiger/It’s the thrill of the fight/Risin’ up to the challenge/Of our rival/And the last known survivor/Stalks his prey in the night/And he’s watching us all with the/Eye of the tiger.”</p>
<p>There was a slight problem, however: No one in Huckabee’s campaign thought to ask the members of Survivor for permission to use the song. Frankie Sullivan, the guitarist for the band and co-author of “Eye of the Tiger,” wasn’t pleased and made that known.</p>
<p>Huckabee decided on an unusual defense: His appearance with Davis, Huckabee’s attorneys argued, wasn’t really a campaign event, it was a “religious assembly” – so you see, Huckabee had a right under the First Amendment to use the song!</p>
<p>Nice try. Rude Music, the firm that owns the copyright for “Eye of the Tiger,” sued. An attorney for Rude Music pointed out that Huckabee had clearly listed the Davis rally as a campaign event.</p>
<p>The media certainly <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/08/politics/kim-davis-kentucky-clerk-2016-candidates-chris-christie/">treated it that way</a>. Davis, who had been in jail for her defiance, emerged to a cheering crowd. Serving as emcee of the event, Huckabee crowed, “If somebody needs to go to jail, I’m willing to go in her place!” Other GOP candidates were frozen out of the rally. Huckabee wanted Davis – and the limelight – all to himself.</p>
<p>The lawsuit over the use of the song was settled out of court. It recently <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article86239672.html">came to light</a> that Huckabee had to pony up $25,000.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="/files/tiger%20eye.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 467px;" /></p>
<p><em>Here's looking at you, Mike Huckabee.</em></p>
<p>And now for the coda: The Iowa caucuses were held on Feb. 1, 2016. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was the winner with 27.6 percent. Donald Trump came in second with 24.3 percent. Huckabee captured a pathetic 1.8 percent of the vote. The next day, he dropped out of the race.</p>
<p>As for Davis, she has of late been trying to <a href="http://www.protectthyneighbor.org/posts/2016/6/21/idxhixi7vvtqdssy430wty26xeko2t">claim victory</a> in her strange case, but the fact is, same-sex couples in Rowan County are being given wedding licenses and are getting married. Davis and her allies may try to spin it differently, but so far she has lost.</p>
<p>In a way, it’s ironic that Huckabee and Davis tried to co-opt that old rock anthem. “Eye of the Tiger” speaks of a heroic underdog who “Had the guts, got the glory” and “Went the distance.”</p>
<p>That hardly describes a pair of fundamentalist zealots who sought the power to use their rigid religion as a vehicle to discriminate against others and deny them their legal rights.</p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/survivor">Survivor</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/eye-of-the-tiger">eye of the tiger</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mike-huckabee">Mike Huckabee</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kim-davis-frankie-sullivan">Kim Davis. Frankie Sullivan</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rocky-iii">Rocky III</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rude-music">Rude Music</a></span></div></div>Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:08:10 +0000Rob Boston12038 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/bitten-by-a-tiger-huckabee-must-pay-for-unauthorized-use-of-song#commentsExploiting Orlando: The Threat Of Rhetoric That Divides Instead Of Uniteshttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exploiting-orlando-the-threat-of-rhetoric-that-divides-instead-of-unites
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Over the weekend, Americans United joined thousands of people here in Washington, D.C., at Capital Pride. We had an informational booth there and were pleased to meet with many people who support our mission.</p>
<p>Inevitably, the tragic murders of 49 people and the wounding of dozens more at a gay club in Orlando early Sunday morning weighed on the minds of many. But the horrific attack didn’t deter people from attending D.C.’s event. AU was pleased to be there and considered it an opportunity to show our support for the LGBTQ community at this difficult time.</p>
<p>That support takes many forms. We must condemn violence and hate in all of its manifestations, but we can’t stop there.</p>
<p>One more thing we can do is stand against anyone who seeks to exploit these tragedies for their own gain. Along those lines, I was struck by a statement that Richard Land, a former top official of the Southern Baptist Convention, issued hours after the attack.</p>
<p>Land, now president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, condemned the killings, but at the end of his statement added: “It should not be lost to the ‘politically correct’ that the target of the terrorist act in this case was the gay community. In areas controlled by Islamic terrorists, homosexuals are thrown from the top of buildings and hung from construction cranes. Political correctness and progressivist policies don’t fare well under Sharia Law.”</p>
<p>U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued a <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cruz-sees-orlando-massacre-possible-wedge-issue">similar statement</a>. Land and Cruz are not known for their sympathy toward the LGBTQ community, so what’s going on here?</p>
<p>It’s likely they see this as a wedge issue, yet another opportunity to get someone they like elected to public office.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="/files/DC%20Pride_0.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 525px;" /></p>
<p><em>Crowds attend the Capital Pride Festival in Washington, D.C. on Sunday. </em></p>
<p>This is not helpful. The best thing Land and Cruz could do right now is stop baiting the LGBTQ community and get to work on improving their own.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.au.org/church-state/september-2015-church-state/featured/mad-men">Here are some things</a><em> </em>the coreligionists of Land and Cruz said about this time last year after the Supreme Court upheld marriage equality:</p>
<p>“The rainbow jihadists of [the Supreme Court] blow up twin towers of truth and righteousness. Every advance of the gay agenda comes at the expense of religious liberty. As of today, free exercise is toast.” (Bryan Fischer, American Family Association)</p>
<p>“I think we’re going to see the further deconstruction of the family. We’re going to see the impact on marriage as we’ve seen in some of the Scandinavian countries. It means we’re going to see more children born out of wedlock.” (Tony Perkins, Family Research Council)</p>
<p>“Many of us will be dragged into court to be prosecuted or subjected to civil judgments. Some will lose their jobs, while others forfeit their businesses. Some will be persecuted and ridiculed and fined. Some may go to prison as the years unfold….I also fear that judgment will befall this once great nation.” (James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family)</p>
<p>“We should not pretend that it is the rule of law, we should not act like it’s the rule of law….It is not; it is not based on the Constitution – and if it’s not based on the Constitution, it’s just their opinion.” (Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel)</p>
<p>And <a href="http://www.lifezette.com/faithzette/franklin-graham-to-christians-take-back-america/">here is something</a> that Franklin Graham said recently: “The gay and lesbian movement is basically a lie itself. Less than 2 percent of the American population is gay, but they have been able to convince the vast majority – largely because they’ve gotten into schools – that the behavior is okay. They are forcing the rest of the country to accept their lifestyle, and our president is promoting that lifestyle. For us as Christians we need to stand up and push back, by getting elected locally.”</p>
<p>Land, Cruz, Fischer, Perkins et al. don’t want to admit this, but the type of ugly talk about the LGBTQ community that flows constantly from their organizations has one goal: dehumanizing and demonizing people who are our friends, family, coworkers and neighbors. No statement issuing sorrow yesterday can change that.</p>
<p>When this sort of violent thing happens – and unfortunately it happens all too often in this country – it’s only natural to want to say something about it. But if what you’re going to say isn’t helpful, if it only promotes a self-serving agenda or seeks to boost yet another political wedge issue, do us all a favor and just clam up.</p>
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</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/richard-land">richard land</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tony-perkins">Tony Perkins</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-dobson">James Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mat-staver">Mat Staver</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/orlando">Orlando</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/franklin-graham">Franklin Graham</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/capital-pride">Capital Pride</a></span></div></div>Mon, 13 Jun 2016 16:15:31 +0000Rob Boston12019 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exploiting-orlando-the-threat-of-rhetoric-that-divides-instead-of-unites#commentsPolitical Piety Panned: We Don't Need A 'God's Party' https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/political-piety-panned-we-dont-need-a-gods-party
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A liberal argues that Jesus wants us to help the poor. A conservative comes along and says no, Jesus was actually for self-reliance. We’re left with another edition of Dueling Bible Passages. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Every few years, a political pundit comes along and proclaims that the Religious Right is dead or on the verge of dying. I started working here in 1987 and have heard it proclaimed many times over nearly three decades.</p><p>The latest theory goes like this: Donald Trump is such a divisive figure that he has split the Religious Right. The movement won’t recover from his candidacy.</p><p>I disagree. From where I’m sitting, it looks like the Religious Right is lining up behind Trump. Some groups and leaders may not be happy about it, but the thought of Hillary Clinton, whom they loathe, occupying the White House has sealed right-wing evangelicals’ fealty to the real estate mogul and reality TV figure.</p><p>Sure, there have been a few defections (<a href="http://www.chron.com/politics/election/national/article/Donald-Trump-battles-Southern-Baptist-ethicist-7439319.php">Russell Moore</a> of the Southern Baptist Convention), but groups like the American Family Association that had backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are already swinging over to Trump. One group, the American Pastors Network, <a href="http://www.americanpastorsnetwork.net/2016/05/09/voting-the-lesser-of-two-evils/">has issued</a> a stream of press releases arguing the “lesser of two evils” line.</p><p>Writing for <em>Slate</em>, Ruth Graham <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/cover_story/2016/05/how_liberal_christians_can_turn_the_democrats_into_the_party_of_god.html">takes the argument</a> a step beyond: The demise of the Religious Right, she opines, opens the door for progressive Christians, the “Religious Left,” if you will, to become a powerful force in the Democratic Party.</p><p>The subtitle of Graham’s article is “How Democrats could become the party of God.” I realize that writers usually don’t pen their own headlines, and this one has the feel of an editor well-versed in clickbait. It’s provocative, but is it accurate? More to the point, would it be helpful to American politics if the Democrats became that kind of party?</p><p>“Liberal Christians today can be found in those who use Jesus’ inspiration to advocate for criminal justice reform, in feminists who view him as a disrupter of the patriarchy, and in the everyday churchgoers who see their values better reflected by the economic and social agenda of the mainstream left,” Graham writes. “They are mainline Protestants, Catholics, and evangelicals. And if they are ever going to reinsert themselves into the heartbeat of American culture, this just might be their moment.”</p><p>Much of Graham’s article is a historical overview of progressive Christianity’s former influence and a lament for its decline. She says some things I find valuable. Few would dispute, for example, that progressive Christians ought to be involved in politics (just as all civic-minded people should) and that they played a key role in securing civil rights and ending other forms of injustice.</p><p>The concern I have is the explicit tying of political issues to someone’s understanding of the Scripture. I’m against that for two reasons: One, we’ve had enough proof-texting contests in the halls of government lately. A liberal argues that Jesus wants us to help the poor. A conservative comes along and says no, Jesus was actually for self-reliance. We’re left with another edition of Dueling Bible Passages. </p><p>It’s tiresome. When it comes to public policy, I don’t think the words of Jesus, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, etc. are relevant. If you want the American people to help or ignore the poor, enact strict or lax gun control, support or oppose the death penalty, etc. give us some secular reasons (and perhaps even some public policy recommendations based on – gasp! – empirical data, scientific research and peer-reviewed studies). Otherwise we’re just back to the same old arguments over what meaning (if any) sprawling ancient texts, many of which were cobbled together over hundreds of year by pre-scientific people, hold for modern life.</p><p>As I noted in my 2014 book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Liberties-Religious-Freedom-Doesnt/dp/1616149116">Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn’t Give You The Right To Tell Other People What To Do</a></em>, politicians aren’t even arguing about the Bible or any other holy book. They are arguing about <em>their interpretation</em> of that book. That’s quite a different thing.</p><p>So should the Democrats become the party of God? I say no – because no political party can ever be the party of God. It can only be the party of what fallible human politicians perceive God to be. And isn’t it funny how the political views of that god always mirror those held by political leaders and their clergy allies?</p><p>What I want instead are political parties that don’t presume to speak for God. I want political parties that welcome all comers, people of faith and people of no faith. I want political parties that tell people to use moral persuasion, not government power, if they want to change the way people live.</p><p>I also want political parties and politicians that stop consulting holy texts when seeking to make laws for everyone to follow. I want them to consult another document instead. It’s called the U.S. Constitution.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-issues-regarding-churches-and-politics">Other Issues regarding Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/slate">Slate</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ruth-graham">Ruth Graham</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jesus-christ">Jesus Christ</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/muhammad">Muhammad</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/joseph-smith">Joseph Smith</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/l-ron-hubbard">L. Ron Hubbard</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/maharishi-mahesh-yogi">Maharishi Mahesh Yogi</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/russell-moore">Russell Moore</a></span></div></div>Tue, 17 May 2016 15:10:39 +0000Rob Boston11968 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/political-piety-panned-we-dont-need-a-gods-party#commentsHoly Hypocrisy!: Religious Right Groups Quickly Changing Their Tune On Trumphttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/holy-hypocrisy-religious-right-groups-quickly-changing-their-tune-on-trump
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">But for all the attack rhetoric the far right lobbed at Trump in recent months, those tents have folded pretty quickly in the face of reality. As far as the Religious Right is concerned, Trump is the lesser of two evils, and it looks like most leaders of that movement are climbing aboard his bandwagon.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, some political analysts are wondering whether Religious Right groups that bashed the thrice-married real estate magnate and reality TV star during the primary season will now rally to his cause in the general election.</p><p>So far it looks like plenty of them will.</p><p>Most Religious Right groups backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/tony-perkins-endorses-ted-cruz-218267">particularly vocal</a>, even suggesting that if Cruz did not win there will never be another presidential election in the United States. (Yep, <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/02/17/perkins-2016-may-be-last-election-if-we-dont-elect-cruz/?repeat=w3tc">he actually said that</a>.)</p><p>Then there was the American Family Association (AFA), which <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/trump-the-moderate-afa-employs-dreaded-m-word-to-halt-rise-of-real-estate?__utma=1.663854720.1446218312.1462825745.1462890885.353&amp;__utmb=1.5.9.1462890971440&amp;__utmc=1&amp;__utmx=-&amp;__utmz=1.1462482617.350.50.utmcsr=facebook.com|utmccn=%28referral%29|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/&amp;__utmv=-&amp;__utmk=12864311">railed against Trump repeatedly</a> for months. Back in February, AFA released a “voter guide” that classified Trump as a “moderate,” which is a dirty word to the Religious Right. The only candidate classified as “very conservative” was Cruz.</p><p>For good measure Bryan Fischer, host of a show on the American Family Association’s American Family Radio, said several months ago that Trump is absolutely not in line with the far-right agenda.</p><p>“Here’s the sobering reality: if Trump becomes our next president, conservatives will have to fight against him almost as hard as we’ve had to fight against [President Barack Obama],” Fischer declared in a column for AFA’s OneNewsNow.</p><p>Times sure have changed. Last week, OneNewsNow ran an interview with Sandy Rios, director of government affairs for AFA. Rios painted a dark picture under presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She said a Clinton victory would result in “more overt persecution” and “a loss of religious freedom” for Christians.</p><p>She also warned that Clinton would appoint liberals to the Supreme Court, and that would pretty much usher in a police state.</p><p>“The next president will likely appoint three new justices,” Rios asserted. “And that means that the whole business of expressing our deeply held beliefs – in our businesses and our private entities like the American Family Association, like Christian radio – and…our conduct and even our thoughts will be criminalized. So it’s pretty bleak.”</p><p>As for Trump, well, he’s not so bad after all, Rios said. At the very least, Rios opined, Trump will be friendlier to the Religious Right than Clinton. Trump, Rios said, “would not be aggressive in the way [Clinton] is to criminalize [religious expression].”</p><p>The story goes on to quote Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project, who said Trump merely “misspoke” when he criticized North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” recently. Added Schilling, “I think that his passion is there and he's willing to fight – and that’s really what we need in 2016, is a fighter.”</p><p>So, after months of slamming Trump on a nearly daily basis, the AFA is now busy urging its folks to get with the program because the alternative is unthinkable. </p><p>Some, however, aren’t totally convinced that America’s budding theocrats will actually show up to vote if the choices are Trump or Clinton. <em>The Washington Post</em> had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/theres-nobody-left-evangelicals-feel-abandoned-by-gop-after-trumps-ascent/2016/05/08/a133991e-130f-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html">a story this week</a> about evangelicals who feel “abandoned” by the Republican Party.</p><p>“I got the idea of ‘Who would Jesus have voted for, Herod or Pilate?’ – and probably neither one, and that’s where I feel we’re at here,” the Rev. Gary Fuller of Gentle Shepherd Baptist Church in Lincoln, Neb., told the newspaper.</p><p>But one thing was lacking from <em>The Post</em> piece. It didn’t feature any truly prominent Religious Right figures who said they would rather stay home than vote for Trump. Some are clearly laying the groundwork to urge their flocks to support him. </p><p>Just yesterday, the American Pastors Network (APN) asked: “Now that the presidential field has considerably narrowed, there’s a pressing question looming for some: ‘Will I vote the <a href="http://www.americanpastorsnetwork.net/2016/05/09/voting-the-lesser-of-two-evils/">lesser of two evils</a> or not vote at all?’” </p><p>Sam Rohrer, head of APN, didn’t endorse a candidate, but you’d have to be pretty dense not to figure out what he wants his followers to do.</p><p>Rohrer called for rejecting any candidate who fails to embrace “God-defined moral absolutes such as life, marriage and God-established human sexuality” and rejecting those that “embrace and pursue the killing of the unborn and marriage between any combination of people other than man and woman.” He added, “As Christians, we should support and vote for the candidate whose principles most closely align with what we believe, what the word of God teaches and what God’s expectations of a leader are.”</p><p>Certainly, there are evangelicals who are so unhappy with Trump that they won’t back him. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics &amp; Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, has written that he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/02/29/russell-moore-why-this-election-makes-me-hate-the-word-evangelical/">just can’t understand</a> why so many of his allies were smitten with The Donald. It doesn’t look like Moore is changing his mind.</p><p>But for all the attack rhetoric the far right lobbed at Trump in recent months, those tents have folded pretty quickly in the face of reality. As far as the Religious Right is concerned, Trump is the lesser of two evils, and it looks like most leaders of that movement are climbing aboard his bandwagon.</p><p>In other words, it’s business as usual with the partisan hacks of the Religious Right. The party apparatus has given them their political marching orders, and they intend to follow them.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tony-perkins">Tony Perkins</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/2016-presidential-election">2016 Presidential Election</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span></div></div>Tue, 10 May 2016 16:05:50 +0000Simon Brown11959 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/holy-hypocrisy-religious-right-groups-quickly-changing-their-tune-on-trump#commentsExit Stage Right: Religious Right Favorite Cruz Drops Out Of Presidential Racehttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exit-stage-right-religious-right-favorite-cruz-drops-out-of-presidential
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fifty percent of Trump’s voters identified themselves as evangelicals, and 48 percent reported attending church at least once a week. Though voters who said they attended church more than once a week supported Cruz, as they have done elsewhere, Trump’s dubious piety has cost him little. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/cruz-does-not-congratulate-trump-222766">has suspended his campaign for president</a>, making Donald Trump the presumptive Republican nominee. Cruz made the announcement yesterday evening after Trump shellacked him in the Indiana primary.<br /><br />Cruz had denounced the GOP frontrunner at a Tuesday <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/politics/donald-trump-rafael-cruz-indiana/">press conference</a> after Trump told supporters the senator’s father had been connected to Lee Harvey Oswald. Trump, Cruz declared, is “utterly amoral,” a “pathological liar” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.”<br /><br />Continued Cruz, “He is proud of being a serial philanderer...he describes his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam.”</p><p>Cruz’s broadside failed to sway Indiana Republicans. In fact, it didn’t even sway Indiana’s self-identified evangelicals. Fifty percent of Trump’s voters identified themselves as evangelicals, and 48 percent reported attending church at least once a week. Though voters who said they attended church more than once a week supported Cruz, as they have done elsewhere, Trump’s dubious piety has cost him little.</p><p>Trump’s success is a stunning challenge to popular understandings of the Religious Right’s priorities. The businessman <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-north-carolina-bathroom-bill_us_5718ca1ee4b0c9244a7aec8c">opposes so-called ‘bathroom bills’</a> that prohibit transgender people from accessing the public bathrooms appropriate to their gender.<br /><br />He has never supported marriage equality, but <a href="http://www.advocate.com/election/2016/1/17/no-donald-trump-has-never-supported-same-sex-marriage">did say last year</a> that the U.S. Supreme Court had settled the matter and that politicians seeking to overturn the ruling did so for “political reasons.” Though he’s since changed positions, his inconsistency places him sharply at odds <a href="http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&amp;id=2303">with Cruz</a> and with the stated political ambitions of the Religious Right.</p><p>Trump is also inconsistent on abortion, another major issue for the Religious Right. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/03/donald-trumps-ever-shifting-positions-on-abortion/">The Washington <em>Post</em> reports</a> that Trump took five different positions on abortion over three days last month. </p><p>His ability to seduce voters from the more obvious evangelical candidate indicates that many voters may understand “evangelical” to be more of a cultural identity than a doctrinal position; that to them, adopting the label is principally a political act and not a religious one.</p><p>If this is true, the Religious Right has no one to blame but itself. It worked diligently to conflate American evangelicalism with conservative, reactionary politics and it succeeded. Whatever a man shall sow, that shall he also reap: Perhaps the Apostle Paul predicted the rise of Trump millennia ago.<br /><br />Though the Religious Right bears some responsibility for creating Trump’s America, Cruz’s loss is still a blow to the movement. Cruz had <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/us/politics/ted-cruz.html?_r=0">invested heavily</a> in courting evangelical voters. He won the Value Voters Summit straw poll three years in a row. He boasted a strong record on the movement’s core culture war positions. And despite an early Trump endorsement from Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., the Religious Right’s most prominent figures and organizations lined up behind Cruz’s candidacy.</p><p>Russell Moore is one of them. Moore, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has repeatedly attacked Trump’s flexible commitment to conservative Christian values. In a New York<em> Times </em>op-ed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/opinion/have-evangelicals-who-support-trump-lost-their-values.html">last year</a>, Moore asserted that Trump’s evangelical backers “must repudiate everything they believe” to support his candidacy. But it was never clear that Moore possessed the influence necessary to convince Southern Baptist clergy and laity to reject Trump, and it now appears that he did not.</p><p>Cruz also boasted the support of <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/tony-perkins-endorses-ted-cruz-218267">the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins</a>, <a href="http://www.afa.net/the-stand/election/2016/01/the-inexplicable-evangelical-support-for-donald-trump/">the American Family Association</a>, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/01/ted-cruz-anti-abortion-coalition-troy-newman">Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman</a> and <a href="https://www.tedcruz.org/news/cruz-for-president-announces-formation-of-religious-liberty-advisory-council/">the First Liberty Institute’s Kelly Shackleford,</a> among other notables. But this too was not enough to wrench a significant evangelical voting bloc away from Trump.</p><p>Trump’s evangelicals are hardly social liberals. Their reluctance to support Cruz does not mean they have stopped opposing LGBT and abortion rights or even that they have stopped believing that they have a moral duty to “Christianize” America. Evangelical voters do not march in lock step – not with their media-appointed “leaders,” not with their co-religionists. In this, they are not substantially different from any other movement.</p><p>Cruz’s collapse doesn’t mean the Religious Right is going to disappear. It’s in flux, just like the rest of the country, and Trump simply capitalized on divisions that already existed. It’s up to the Religious Right’s operatives to decide where they go from here.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-groups-involvement-in-candidate-elections">Religious Groups’ Involvement in Candidate Elections</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/2016-presidential-election">2016 Presidential Election</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/evangelicals">Evangelicals</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kelly-shackleford">Kelly Shackleford</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/russell-moore">Russell Moore</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/troy-newman">Troy Newman</a></span></div></div>Wed, 04 May 2016 16:06:19 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11949 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exit-stage-right-religious-right-favorite-cruz-drops-out-of-presidential#commentsDiversity In D.C.?: Humanist Wins Maryland Congressional Primaryhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/diversity-in-dc-humanist-wins-maryland-congressional-primary
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Raskin, a humanist, was endorsed by the Freethought Equality Fund Political Action Committee. And unlike some candidates who might pander to sectarian interests, Raskin embraced that show of support.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>In a nod to growing diversity in the United States, the U.S. Congress may soon have an openly non-theistic member after state Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Silver Spring-Takoma Park) won a Maryland primary last night.</p><p>Raskin, a humanist, <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/26/jamie-raskin-an-openly-humanist-u-s-house-candidate-from-maryland-just-won-his-primary/">was endorsed</a> by the Freethought Equality Fund Political Action Committee. And unlike some candidates who might pander to sectarian interests, Raskin embraced that show of support.<br /><br />“I am fighting for a politics that has all of humanity in mind and does not divide people based on race, gender, sexual orientation or religion,” he said at the time. “I’m delighted to accept the endorsement of the Freethought Equality Fund and everyone else who wants to make sure that we base public policy on science, reason and humanist values that take into account the interests of all people.”</p><p>Raskin will face <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/raskin-trone-close-in-md-8th-congressional-district-primary/2016/04/26/055e4d08-0bbd-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html">Republican Dan Cox</a>, an attorney, in the general election. If he wins, he will be the only open non-theist in Congress. He would also be just the second “out” non-theist in congressional history – the first, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), left office in 2013.</p><p>Raskin’s primary victory is significant and could indicate the start of a shift in the American political landscape. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, Americans still prefer religious candidates. Ninety-three percent said they would vote for a Catholic; only 58 percent said the same for an atheist.</p><p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/183713/socialist-presidential-candidates-least-appealing.aspx?utm_source=Politics&amp;utm_medium=newsfeed&amp;utm_campaign=tiles">A 2014 Gallup poll</a> reported similar results: Americans were least likely to vote for a Muslim, an atheist or a socialist. <a href="https://au.org/church-state/february-2016-church-state/featured/the-last-political-taboo">And a 2011 study</a> by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon found that Canadian and American respondents were more likely to blame a hypothetical theft on an atheist than on a rapist.</p><p>Several states (including Maryland) still have laws on the books banning atheists from public office. Legal experts agree such bans are unenforceable, but they’re an ugly reminder of a more theocratic past. Raskin, who also teaches constitutional law at American University in Washington, D.C., has railed against these provisions in the past.<br /><br />“It’s an obsolete but lingering insult to people,” he told <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/in-seven-states-atheists-push-to-end-largely-forgotten-ban-.html?_r=0"><em>The New York</em> <em>Times</em> in 2014</a>, adding, “In the breathtaking pluralism of American religious and social life, politicians have to pay attention to secularists just the same as everybody else.”</p><p>Not all politicians agree. Some — typically those affiliated with the Religious Right --- have actively reinforced anti-atheist stigma. GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) promoted explicit anti-atheist stigma during a “religious liberty” rally in Iowa last year.<br /><br />“Any president who doesn't begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation,” <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1110/Ted-Cruz-Atheists-shouldn-t-be-president.-Why-are-they-so-vilified">he said.</a><br /><br />Some Maryland voters, it seems, don’t share Cruz’s antipathy toward non-theists. And since Raskin’s district tilts heavily Democratic, there’s a good chance he’ll be on Capitol Hill next year.</p><p><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/11/religious-nones-are-not-only-growing-theyre-becoming-more-secular/">According to Pew</a>, 23 percent of Americans now report having no religious affiliation. As a consequence, we may see more non-religious candidates run for office and win. That may disturb the Ted Cruzes of the world, but since the U.S. Constitution forbids any religious test for office there’s nothing they can do to prevent it.</p><p>Nonetheless, non-theists have typically struggled at the polls thanks to good, old-fashioned prejudice. But as the United States becomes more diverse, voters may increasingly focus on policy rather than piety when choosing their elected officials. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-issues-regarding-churches-and-politics">Other Issues regarding Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jamie-raskin">Jamie Raskin</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/atheism">atheism</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-freedom">religious freedom</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/maryland">Maryland</a></span></div></div>Wed, 27 Apr 2016 15:55:11 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11913 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/diversity-in-dc-humanist-wins-maryland-congressional-primary#commentsFly Like An Eagle: Schlafly Faces Coup At Organization She Foundedhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fly-like-an-eagle-schlafly-faces-coup-at-organization-she-founded
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">At a meeting yesterday, the Forum’s Board of Directors removed Ed Martin, a Schlafly ally, from his position as the group’s president. Members also named Schlafly’s daughter, Anne Schlafly Cori, its new executive director. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Religious Right warhorse Phyllis Schlafly may be ousted from her role as chairperson and CEO of the Eagle Forum. Schlafly, 91, perhaps best known for her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s, founded the group in 1972.</p><p>At a meeting yesterday, the Forum’s Board of Directors removed Ed Martin, a Schlafly ally, from his position as the group’s president. Members also named Schlafly’s daughter, Anne Schlafly Cori, its new executive director.<br /><br />Martin had emailed members over the weekend with claims that a so-called “Gang of Six,” including Cori, were plotting to oust Schlafly; Schafly <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/11/phyllis-schlafly-pushes-own-daughter-to-resign-amid-cruz-trump-split/">had asked her daughter to resign</a>.</p><p>“The rogue group members have a hidden agenda, and most refused to return phone calls personally made to them by Phyllis to ask them what their concerns are,” <a href="https://twitter.com/BudKennedy/status/718876641280135168">Martin wrote</a>, and added that “a big liberal law firm” advised the dissidents.</p><p>Martin also claimed that opposition to Schlafly’s role stemmed from her refusal to endorse the concept of calling a new constitutional convention to make a series of changes to the U.S. Constitution. As I previously <a href="https://www.au.org/church-state/april-2014-church-state/featured/faux-founders">reported for <em>Church &amp; State</em></a>, many far-right activists have expressed renewed interest in the idea. As of January, 27 states had passed resolutions calling for a constitutional convention, most relying on model legislation <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/01/_liberals_and_conservatives_are_teaming_up_to_call_a_new_constitutional.html">drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council</a> and the Convention of States, a little-known group founded by Religious Right activist <a href="http://www.conventionofstates.com/national_leadership">Michael Farris</a>.</p><p>Schlafly has long objected to the idea of a “con-con” because, she argues, there would be no way to control its outcome. Schlafly fears that left-wing activists would take control of the convention add progressive amendments. (AU opposes a new convention as well but for different reasons. We worry that far-right activists will take over and add amendments promoting school prayer, “Christian nation” concepts and other pet ideas of the Religious Right.)</p><p>Other Eagle Forum staffers say they support a con-con, but that issue may be a smokescreen. The real reason Schlafly is facing a coup is probably because she has endorsed Donald Trump for president.</p><p>Schalfly publicly endorsed Trump last month, but her daughter and other members of the “Gang of Six” endorsed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cathie Adams, who heads the Eagle Forum’s Texas branch and whom Martin identified as one of Schlafly’s internal critics, complained about the endorsement at the time and implied that Schlafly is too old to know what she’s doing.</p><p>“We have no respect for that man [Trump],” <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/03/despite-trump-endorsement-from-eagle-forum-leader-members-are-sticking-with-cruz.html/">Adams told the Dallas <em>Morning News.</em></a> “I think this was very much a manipulation. When you’re 91 and you’re not out with the grassroots all the time, it is very much taking advantage of someone.”</p><p>It’s an ignominious fate for a woman widely considered to be one of America’s most prominent culture warriors. Schlafly first achieved fame for her successful 1970s campaign to derail the ERA. Had it passed, the <a href="http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/history.htm">ERA would have amended</a> the U.S. Constitution to state that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”<br /><br />In 1972, when Schlafly founded the Eagle Forum and launched her “Stop ERA” campaign, abortion was illegal in most of the country and marital rape <a href="http://time.com/3975175/spousal-rape-case-history/">was not</a>. But in an <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g1qMXBI1Psp7lv7Q9D9iEaE3YrR2Hl_9-5Y1RkKBxkc/edit">editorial</a> that year, she claimed that American women are “the most privileged” class.</p><p>“The claim that American women are downtrodden and unfairly treated is the fraud of the century. The truth is that American women never had it so good,” she asserted.</p><p>Schlafly has also vehemently opposed equal rights for LGBT people even though her son, John Schlafly, is gay.</p><p>“The gays have their argument about inevitability,” she told <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/02/phyllis-schlafly-gay-agenda_n_6778696.html">SiriusXM’s Michael Signorile last year</a>. “I don’t think that’s so. I’m extremely disappointed that the Republican Party, the conservative movement, even the Democratic Party and the churches, have been saying, ‘Well soon the court will decide, and that will be it.’ Well, a lot of people thought that about <em>Roe v. Wade</em>, and we’ve seen the whole abortion movement turned around in the last ten years.”</p><p>Schlafly’s current status at the Eagle Forum remains unclear, but this saga likely isn't over. Although we disagree with Schlafly on just about everything, we knowledge that she’s a fighter. Even at her advanced age, it's unwise to count her out. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/constitutional-convention">constitutional convention</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/lgbt-rights">LGBT rights</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/era">ERA</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/feminism">feminism</a></span></div></div>Tue, 12 Apr 2016 16:06:11 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11890 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fly-like-an-eagle-schlafly-faces-coup-at-organization-she-founded#commentsDeflating Stereotypes: New Study Debunks Link Between Mosque Attendance And Radicalizationhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/deflating-stereotypes-new-study-debunks-link-between-mosque-attendance-and
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">According to IPSU, the religious practices of Muslims bear close resemblance to their devout Protestant neighbors – news that should come as a surprise to the Religious Right. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p><a href="http://www.ispu.org/pdfs/repository/ampkeyfindings.pdf">A recent survey</a> by the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (IPSU) finds that American Muslims and American Protestants have more in common than many people think.</p><p>According to IPSU, the religious practices of Muslims bear close resemblance to their devout Protestant neighbors – news that should come as a surprise to the Religious Right.<br /><br />“What emerged from the results is a profile of a Muslim community that is both pious and patriotic, optimistic and weary of discrimination; a community that is similar to Jews in its politics, and much like Protestants in its religious practice,” the report stated.</p><p>IPSU found that 91 percent of Muslims who reported that their faith is “important” to them also said that being an American is important to their identity. Muslims were also more likely than any other faith group to condemn the extrajudicial killing of civilians by U.S. armed forces, and were just as likely to condemn the targeting of civilians by radical individuals or groups.<br /><br />Nor does the study uncover any evidence that piety reliably indicates that radicalization has occurred. In other words, the American Muslims who frequently attend mosque in America don’t become terrorists.</p><p>“There is no correlation between Muslim religious identity, the importance of religion or frequency of mosque attendance and Muslim attitudes toward violence,” it concluded. </p><p>In fact, Muslims who attended mosque regularly were actually <em>more likely</em> to report being engaged with their communities in positive ways, either by registering to vote or by working alongside neighbors “to solve community problems.”</p><p>That defies some stereotypes about the relationship between Muslim piety and radicalization.</p><p><a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/spy-vs-constitution-new-york-city-police-agree-to-settlement-in-muslim">As previously reported on this blog</a>, these stereotypes sometimes become embedded in counterterrorism strategies. The New York Police Department (NYPD) finally settled two ongoing lawsuits over its secret program of surveilling Muslim neighborhoods earlier this year. Its now-defunct Demographics Unit planted undercover agents in Muslim Student Associations at the City College of New York, Baruch College and Hunter College. Officers also attended local mosques and patronized Muslim-owned businesses and cafés.</p><p>The Demographics Unit existed for over a decade and failed to catch a single terrorist. This year’s settlement prohibits the NYPD from spying on communities based solely on their racial or religious affiliation.</p><p>But one presidential candidate didn’t learn from the NYPD’s example. After last month’s bloody terrorist attacks in Brussels, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/03/ted-cruz-calls-patroling-muslim-neighborhoods">released a statement</a> urging the U.S. government to “patrol” Muslim communities.</p><p>“We need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” he said. “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”</p><p>It’s little surprise Cruz made this recommendation: His “Religious Liberty Advisory Council” is headed by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Perkins made headlines last January when he <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/no-go-zones-minneapolis-ellison-tony-perkins">erroneously asserted</a> that Minneapolis contains Muslim “no-go zones” that enforced strict Islamic law.</p><p>There have indeed been American Muslims who have traveled to Syria <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/18/american-isis-fighter-regrets-decision-mohamad-jamal-khweis">to join ISIS</a>, and a radicalized husband and wife team committed last year’s attack in San Bernardino, Calif. But this does not mean that most Muslim communities have become terrorist incubators. There are no “no-go zones” in Minneapolis or anywhere else in America – a lesson the NYPD learned years ago. And Muslims themselves <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/how-american-muslims-counter-isis-groomers/433566/">have taken proactive steps</a> toward addressing signs of extremism in their own communities.</p><p>IPSU’s study further weakens Cruz’s position. If there is no evidence to support the surveillance of Muslim communities, then recommendations they be singled out and “patrolled” are based on nothing but bigotry. That’s incompatible with the First Amendment. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/outside-workplace-discrimination-exemptions-religious-practice-including-military-prisons">Institutional Discrimination, Exemptions &amp; Religious Practice (Including Immigration, Military, Prisons &amp; Healthcare)</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/anti-muslim-bigotry">anti-Muslim bigotry</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/terrorism">terrorism</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/isis">ISIS</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-discrimination">religious discrimination</a></span></div></div>Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:26:12 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11879 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/deflating-stereotypes-new-study-debunks-link-between-mosque-attendance-and#commentsRadical Recommendations?: ‘Religious Liberty’ Issues Continue To Roil Presidential Race https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/radical-recommendations-religious-liberty-issues-continue-to-roil
<a href="/about/people/ms-sarah-e-jones">Sarah E. Jones</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Branded as recommendations for any GOP candidate who might take office next year, the list may be read as a blueprint for a new approach to religious freedom in America. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Days after recommending that the U.S. government <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/politics/ted-cruz-muslim-neighborhoods/index.html">place Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance</a>, presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a list of “religious liberty” policy recommendations formulated by his Religious Liberty Advisory Council.</p><p>Branded as recommendations for any GOP candidate who might take office next year, the list may be read as a blueprint for a new approach to religious freedom in America. <a href="http://thewayofimprovement.com/2016/03/24/ted-cruzs-religious-liberty-advisory-committee/">And as reported by Messiah College’s Dr. John Fea</a>, these recommended policies would, if implemented, interpret the First Amendment in ways that would leave some people out in the cold.</p><p>For example, the council wants to roll back the Obama administration’s anti-discrimination efforts – including Executive Order 13672, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Cruz’s advisors call for rescinding that order entirely and directing federal agencies to “stop interpreting ‘sex’ to include ‘sexual orientation’ and/or ‘gender identity’ where the term ‘sex’ refers to a protected class in federal law.’”</p><p>The policy recommendation notes that this effort would be “prioritized” at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Education (ED), the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.</p><p>Such a move would have serious repercussions. The ED announced in 2014 that Title IX’s anti-discrimination provisions apply to transgender students in public schools and universities; similarly, the EEOC interprets Title VII as prohibiting employment discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation. If these recommendations become policy, LGBT Americans would face an immediate reduction to the few federal protections they currently enjoy. </p><p>These recommendations appear to be tied to a broader agenda to re-interpret the First Amendment: Cruz’s council also wants to review and possibly revise federal agency guidance on the subject.</p><p>Recommendations like this aren’t surprising given the make-up of the council. It is headed by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. He’s joined by David and Jason Benham. The brothers, who are Value Voters Summit regulars, lost their HGTV show after <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hgtv-picks-anti-gay-anti-choice-extremists-new-reality-tv-show">reports surfaced</a> that they’d referred to homosexuality as a “demonic ideology,” called mosques “dens of iniquity” and protested in front of abortion clinics, which David Benham had branded “altars of Moloch.”</p><p>Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s president, Paige Patterson, also sits on the council. Patterson <a href="https://dannimoss.wordpress.com/clergy-abuse-links/abuse-in-the-church/paige-pattersons-views-on-domestic-violence/">once openly admitted</a> urging a battered wife to return to her abusive husband (who proceeded to give her two black eyes) and <a href="http://www.baptisttheology.org/book-reviews/first-freedom-the-baptist-perspective-on-religious-liberty/">has previously argued</a> that Christians alone are the most “effective” advocates for religious liberty.</p><p>The First Liberty Institute’s Kelly Shackleford and the Heritage Foundation’s Ryan Anderson are also listed as advisors, alongside longtime Religious Right figure Bishop Harry Jackson and former UN Ambassador Ken Blackwell, among others.</p><p>There are no non-Christians on the council. There are no Muslims or Sikhs, even though both groups have been subjected to rising rates of hate crime and discrimination. Since Cruz has appointed <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr">anti-Muslim bigots like Frank Gaffney</a> to foreign policy roles in his campaign, this is of little surprise.</p><p>Earlier this month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Dr. Robert George publicly endorsed Cruz. <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/03/18/chairman-of-government-commission-on-global-religious-freedom-unironically-endorses-ted-cruz/">As reported by The Intercept</a>, George claimed Cruz “understands the Constitution” and added, “No one has been stronger than Ted in standing up for religious liberty and other fundamental constitutional freedoms.” (George taught Cruz during the latter’s undergraduate years at Princeton University.)</p><p>But Cruz’s chosen religious liberty advisors and recommended policies fail to reflect a true regard for the full range of American who rely on the First Amendment’s religious liberty protections. Rather, they promote an exclusionary interpretation of that amendment that applies to socially conservative Christians and nobody else. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/workplace-discrimination-exemptions-religious-practice">Discrimination, Exemptions &amp; Religious Practice in the Workplace</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-liberty">Religious Liberty</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-and-jason-benham">David and Jason Benham</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ken-blackwell">Ken Blackwell</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/harry-jackson">Harry Jackson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/kelly-shackleford">Kelly Shackleford</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/paige-patterson">Paige Patterson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/first-liberty-institute">First Liberty Institute</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/2016-presidential-election">2016 Presidential Election</a></span></div></div>Fri, 25 Mar 2016 15:55:03 +0000Ms. Sarah E. Jones11837 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/radical-recommendations-religious-liberty-issues-continue-to-roil#comments